Data, Rex
by scimitarblue
Summary: A companion story to "Home", which I wrote previously. Takes place in the "Countdown" era, roughly ten years after Nemesis. Captain Data uses the Enterprise as an engine of war, abandons Starfleet, and makes himself the new ruler of a shattered world.


Data, Rex

Captain Data...Captain Data...

...Data...

The pale-skinned, golden-eyed, Soong-type android seated, alone, on the bridge of the Sovereign-Class_ Enterprise-E _smiled, leaning back in his chair, flicking at the switches on the left arm of the seat. His smile was not one nearly indicative enough of the manic, extreme levels of emotional activity wracking his positronic brain, but one that gave him an appearance that was cool, content, and controlled. He had the appearance of a man who knew exactly who was doing, and was relishing it. He was such a man - for, he had known when he set out on this course that this was exactly how events would proceed. Everything that had occured in the last twenty-five years - had it indeed been such a long time - had led him to this defining moment, to this turning point in his quest to become more human.

More human? No. Something more. He had learned from the humans what he needed to, and now better understood the nature of emotion, and better understood his individuality. For this, he was eternally and undyingly grateful. However, the humans had not only done him great kindnesses, they had also inflicted great harm. They were a fine race, granted a certain sense of justice and law, and given a proper sense of the natural order of things. There were men, there were gods. It was to men to understand the words of their gods, and obey them, to heed the call to justice, to peace, to love, and to co-existence.

From the sound of it, the citizens of the soon-dying world below would not heed such a call. They would perish at the hands of their god.

Captain Data, or his reincarnated form, one should say, reconstructed from Data's memory engrams through the android known only as B-4, called to the ship's computer from his command chair on the _Enterprise's _empty bridge, the command center.

"Computer, play Mozart's Requiem in D Minor, audio only, broadcast on all hailing frequencies."

The Titan and the Challenger were en route from a world where, moments ago, they had finished clearing natural asteroid debris, liberating the citizenry below. It was this alone that had prevented them from following Admiral Janeway's orders. She had, only hours before, declared Data unfit for duty, and, following the failure of his own crew to deactivate him, she had dispatched Captains Riker and LaForge to have him removed from the _Enterprise_. Or, barring all else, to have the Enterprise destroyed.

Data mused at the outright lack of logic in such a situation. The citizens of the world below were wild, savage creatures, in need of a higher being to call them into order. From the world's surface, beneath a purifying rain of phaser and torpedo fire, they would look into the sky, and would worship not a false idol, but a god of judgement, and a god of wrath. Their god was a massive saucer, connected by a long, sleek neck to a secondary hull, connected by elegant pylons to massive warp nacelles. The wicked would cry to their god for forgiveness...but forgiveness would not come to them. They had proven themselves far, far beyond it.

As the clarinets at the musical composition's opening began to play, Data stood, surveying the empty bridge. He had reduced oxygen levels, shipwide, to approximately 20% their current volume, rendering his crew unconscious. They did not understand the obligation that the Captain had to fulfill this, his task, that which now defined his being. He had beamed the entire ship's crew, one by one, to one of the southern, uninhabited continents of this world. When they woke, they would be too late to halt the course of history. Data would be a living instrument of history, a new chapter in the tragic tale of this wretched world. This would be a new beginning.

Frantically, two blinking lights indicated that more than any of the others, there were two specific locations on the world surface desperately attempting to reach their new deity. Data grinned softly, as the choir began to sing, and pressed softly his fingertip upon the first of the two buttons. He neither responded, nor welcomed the guest, but let the music speak for him, instead.

The Alliance representative was the first to speak, his comm signal coming in hazily amid the shot that the Enterprise was already firing, from her main phaser banks, towards the military bases, launch silos, and missile launchers littering the world's surface. "Federation starship _Enterprise_, this is General Cade, of the Alliance. We have surface-to-air weapons primed, ready, and locked on your vessel. Deactivate your target lock on our capital buildings, or we will open fire."

Data lazily flicked the communication from General Cade off, and reclined in his chair once more. Cade, like so many of his colony, was attempting to strongarm and brutalize. These tactics were common on the world's surface, and were the reason that rape gangs, crime, violence, and civil war had broken out under the rule of a man like Cade. Cade was flawed, and was human. He did not understand, nor could he, the responsibilities or the requirements of command, over a group of so manny other flawed beings. Cade, like so many others, had also been granted countless occasions to redeem himself, throughout his rule. He had consolidated a power base, and had seized control of a significant portion of the planet. Yet, the attacks on civilian populaces, the violations, and the lawlessness of this world still persisted. Judgement would be most unkind to General Cade.

The choir began to reach a crescendo, and the sopranos and altos singing harmony to the piece began their wail, as a second voice filled the bridge.

"God damnit, Data! It's me! Ishara! You have to stop this now!"

Data mused, glancing down at a sensor reading and watching missile silos burst into flames under the impact of the _Enterprise_'s fiery phaser arrays, raining death upon those combatants who had followed the Coalition and Alliance for so long. In order to save this world, it was necessary to purify it of its previous inequities. Corrupt factions like the Alliance and Coalition were to blame for what had befallen this people, and their soldiers were the 'strong' men of the world who made up the base of the planet's rape gangs. They would suffer judgement at his hands, to be spared the saving grace he would grant upon the remaining citizenry.

"Data, what the hell do you want?!? You've crippled our missile turrets, our silos, our garrisons...damnit, Data, we're defenseless! The Alliance is going to tear us apart! We're trying to save ourselves!" In the background, he could hear the planet being rocked by the impact of phaser beams, and Ishara cried out. "Damnit, Data, you've wiped out over half the Coalition's number already! The capital is all we've got left! Why are you doing this?!?"

She had used him, previously, though it left him little worse for wear. He had placed trust in her, she had betrayed him. In recent years, she had come to a position of power within the Coalition that she served. She had experienced great social uplift and great power at his expense, and now she would pay the proverbial piper for it. Data flicked the switch on the terminal, and her voice, too, was silenced.

A sole female lead in the choir sang something of a lament as Data approached the Tactical terminal, musing to himself as he did so.

"If only you had lived," he whispered, "This would have been your station. You would stand here, beside me, on this day that I liberate your homeworld. You would know the sort of justice for your people that, throughout your life, you showed such a true, virtuous dedication towards."

It was too late for such thoughts now, although in the back of his positronic brain, he felt as if he could see her shadow beside him, guiding his hands as he input the co-ordinates for two, final quantum torpedoes. These weapons of mass destruction would be the instrument with which he would paint her face upon the service of this world, and all would remember her name.

Data's emotion chip was fused into his neural net...but at the moment, the android would have it no other way. This emotion chip had been a gift from Geordi LaForge, ironically, granted to him just short weeks before he'd been assigned to this world as a peacekeeper. The day before he had consulted Admiral Janeway to obtain the _Enterprise_ next orders, Geordi had installed this chip, and upon its integration with his neural net, Data had come to understand everything that his predecessor had kept from him for so long.

The first Commander Data had dedicated a significant portion of his thoughts, and his positronic brain, to the memory of a long-dead human female. It was an anomaly, and something of a disturbance to his newer brother, until Captain Data, the second, had researched the files, and analyzed them, in detail. Upon reception of his emotion chip, these files had flung the first Commander Data into disarray, and emotional disaster, in the confines of his quarters on the _Enterprise-D_, in Soran's lab, in every circumstance in which the chip had been activated.

The female he had attached himself to, early in his time on the _Enterprise_, had become a part of his life. His reflection on her, dedication to her, the works he had written and created for her with his bare hands had been the stuff with which he had crafted his own soul. Without her...he never would have known joy, or beauty, or any of these things. He had, mused Captain Data, known love and its ilk long before the emotion chip had touched his positronic brain.

She had lived too short a life, and had died long before she had known the love, or the gentleness that she had sought. Only once had they touched, and it was the sweetest of poisons that the android had ever known, one that course through his bio-chemical valves and veins long after the day that she had died. She had cared for him, and he for her, though he knew that neither of them had ever found themselves willing to admit it.

No...untrue. This was an inaccurate statement. She had not admitted it, although further investigation of his passive external sensors, and logs from the time that she had lived indicated that her feelings for him had indeed been true. There was, upon this further investigation, approximately a 78.3% chance, based on similar readings he had determined in his study of other organic beings, that if she had lived they would have indeed found love. Perhaps, the long and lasting love like that which Captain Riker and Counselor Troi knew. Data would never know as a certainty, however, and that was the legacy of Armus. But...it was also, largely, the legacy of this world.

She had suffered, as a child. She had suffered, until the day that she joined Starfleet Academy. Until she had arrived on the _Enterprise, _as Tactical Officer, and until the time that they had become friends...Data hazarded a guess, based on the information and the details of her life before that she had divulged during that one, fateful night they had shared together, that the Enterprise was the first place of certainty, and of peace that she had known. The first true, unbroken home. Fifteen years of her life had been wasted needlessly, the result of human behaviour and inconsistencies, the result of the human weaknesses of the colony leaders of her world.

Human beings were capable of great things. But they lacked guidance. They lacked conscience, with the exception of a few remarkable individuals like Ambassador Picard, Captain Riker, and Captain LaForge. They lacked the ability to understand the difference between good and evil, they lacked the ability to restrain themselves, to control their emotions.

Data keyed in the last details of the torpedo's impact, and set a timer.

It was then that the Galaxy-class starship _Challenger_, and the Luna-class starship _Titan _warped into the system. Immediately, more lights flashed on the command chair, and Data raised an eyebrow, acknowledging instantly that the new communications were no likely from Captains Riker and LaForge, attempting to dissuade him from his current course of action. A clash between titans, this would be - a clash between gods. And within this battle, he would show to the people of his new world that he was a god to be feared.

He sat in the chair and tugged at his uniform front, lightly. He still felt as if, in these moments, he could feel her shadow, standing by her side. He glanced up, and felt as if he could see her eyes, glancing down at him. Then, it occured to him that he could still see her eyes, if he truly wished. He reached down, beside him, picking up a hexagonal prism, a clear and transparent one, the form of the holoprojector that housed the final message she'd prepared for him. He held it firmly in one hand, and with the other hand he flicked a switch that would open a channel to the first ship.

"This is Captain Riker of the Federation starship _Titan_. _Enterprise_, you will stand down your weapons, and prepare to be boarded!"

Data flicked a switch, and the image of Riker on the viewscreen was replaced by Captain LaForge's.

"Data!" he called out, from the command seat of his own ship, "Data, it's me: Geordi. You're not well. Your emotion chip is malfunctioning. You have to stand down, and let me help you. Please lower your shields."

Data flicked the switch, and Geordi's image disappeared, replaced by the image of black space, and the two Federation starships. He smirked lightly, and activated the holoprojector, watching as her image flickered to life. Life...life that should have been hers, a life she was stripped of in her youth by the world below. He would make certain that such was never again the fate of a citizen of the world from which she had been born.

"For you," he spoke, softly, "This is all for you, Tasha. My gift to you."

The _Titan _was the first to open fire, fire from her phaser banks cutting into the _Enterprise'_s shields. The vessel rocked, but Data held onto his seat, and did not drop the active holoprojector in his hand. The _Titan _fired a spread of photon torpedoes, to the same effect. The shields were holding. Then the _Challenger _opened fire, her phaser and torpedo banks unleashing deadly rain upon Data's ship. Data smirked. He had changed his prefix codes numerous times, and the codes were now on a rotating combination, and the frequency required to relay them changed consistently as well. They were incapable of commanding his vessel to stand down. The _Enterprise _had become a vessel for him, an extension of himself. He was this ship, and the ship was him.

The _Titan _and the _Challenger_, however, were still human vessels. Still fallible.

He had programmed the communications terminal on the Tactical station to hail, on a rotating frequency, the starships _Titan _and _Challenger _the moment he had learned of their approach. The ship would relay their prefix codes - or, would by deduction, trial, and error, attempt to relay prefix codes - and, when it found the combination, the shields on the two vessels would drop. Until then, Data needed only to sit, and wait, as the phaser and torpedo fire rocked his ship, sparks spewing from the Ops and Science terminals on the bridge.

His shields were approaching low levels...dangerously low levels. Soon, the phaser and torpedo fire would penetrate his ship's hull directly. Data, however, had faith in the plan that he had begun to implement. It was all just a question of time, and a question of fate. Would fate be kind to him, her newest of gods?

The _Titan'_s shields were the first to drop. Data flicked a switch, and fired a spread of quantum torpedoes. One of the vessel's nacelle's were torn cleanly off, as the torpedoes exploded on impact, sending the _Titan _reeling into space. Her main power grid was offline, her weapons were offline, and she would be drifting for several days before Riker's crew had sufficient time to repair her. The _Challenger _persisted however. This was not unexpected - Geordi had known what to expect from his old friend. William Riker had not.

The shields on the _Challenger_, however, dropped after a few moments. Before the _Enterprise _was in any significant amount of danger. Data fired a second spread of quantum torpedoes, to roughly the same effect as Riker's vessel. The _Challenger _shuddered, like a beast in its death knell, and careened wildly out of control. She drifted off, into deep space, in a direction perpendicular to the Titan's.

Three gods had met in this place, today. But only one had managed to survive. The starship _Enterprise_.

The crescendo of the piece rose, and Data glanced back down at a readout of the world below. The planet's two warring factions had launched a series of missiles and projectiles. With a clean phaser sweep, the _Enterprise _cleared them all away, allowing them to harmlessly explode in the planet's atmosphere. One more hail came in, from the Challenger. Data flicked a switch, and Geordi's face again filled the viewscreen, his bridge smoky, red, and hazy, his Ops officer draped, dead, over a console.

"Data," Geordi pleaded, "Data, don't do this..."

Data flicked the switch again, and Geordi's face was replaced by a view of the world's surface. Data glanced down, watching the hologram of the young woman, before him, beaming. He wished, very much, that she had been alive to witness this. To see all of the things that he had done for her, and for those like her - so that they, who had endured the inaction of the Federation, and the injustices of the Alliance and Coalition, might know at last know a day when they would live freely, and under the watch of a loving, just ruler. To know the day when they were saved.

Had only she lived a little longer, she would have stood here beside him, heralding a new day for Turkana IV.

"Fire," he commanded the ship's computer, as the tactical computer's timer drew to a close. The _Enterprise'_s quantum torpedo launchers locked on to the two main underground installations, one which was the main military base for the Alliance, and the other which was the main base for the Coalition. Fire rained down upon the two sites from the heavens, and the earth was thrown asunder, the impacts of the weapons like great explosions of black paint, and the _Enterprise_ was the hand with which Data had painted the portrait of his life, and of hers, on the surface of this once-wretched world. This was a new beginning. Things would be different, now.

"Cease fire," he spoke, and all weapons stopped. He watched the surface, through sensors. The world's civilian areas, sparse cities, and cavern networks were untouched. Every military installation had been obliterated, wiped cleanly off the face of this world and out of the pages of history. He had undone fifty years of injustice in one, fell swoop. The music started to draw to a close. He reached beside himself, for a moment taking an imaginary hand, and glancing up into the eyes of the one he loved.

"For you," he smiled, "All for you."

He stood, and opened a hailing frequency to the surface, and to open space. He broadcasted on all bands, and all channels.

"Citizens of Turkana IV," he spoke, "What you have witnessed today is a passing of judgement, for men like General Cade. Turkana IV is no longer governed by martial law, nor do the Coalition or Alliance hold any ruling power. You are all free citizens, and the provisions you require will all be soon provided for."

He moved to the front of the bridge, his face filling the viewscreen.  
"You will call me Data. I am your new king."


End file.
